Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

I’ve been trying to find the time to write a proper review of Amor Towles’s debut novel Rules of Civility because I think it highly deserves accolades. Sadly time is in short supply these days as I’m in the middle of the Fall buying season. I just wanted to give a short plug for this amazing novel.

It’s a wonderful portrait of late 1930s New York. I felt like I had stepped back in time. I was so inspired, I cut my hair short again! On the last night of 1937, Katey Konent and her roommate Eve end up at a Greenwich Village jazz bar where they meet Tinker Grey, a handsome well to do banker. The chance meeting sets up the rest of the novel. You see the wealthy and privileged, many who abuse their positions in society, and the young working class trying to eke out a living in the city. Towles brings an immense depth to his characters. I was sad to finish this remarkable book. The basic things to know about this novel: it’s fantastic, it’s set in the late 1930s in New York, I loved it.